Reader's Letter: New Year's resolutions for 2016

by Raymond Walker

Friday 1st January 2016

Fri 1st Jan 2016

It may be of interest to consider that others may feel that Cheshire East needs to wake up now that they have a change of leadership in 2016 and there fore have suggested a series of resolutions that they may consider making that would benefit the community.

1. Get rid of the 'hub' telephone contact system. It is slow, communicates 'two sides round a triangle' and there is never an immediate response. Bring back direct lines into the various departments of the Council so that knowledgeable people can answer a caller's queries directly.2. Discontinue the regularly provided and unnecessary Police information paper which seems to enjoy peddling statistics and peripherals. For a force to have three in-house media personnel is eccentric.3. Bring back directly run services, not contracted out (so that an extra layer of administration costs/profits are never put into the hands of a third party).4. Make sure all roadway grids are cleaned out every six months (as they used to be). Such a job is now not tackled on a regular maintenance basis. With flash floods in everyone's minds we don't want the present state of flooded roads (like A34 and local roads) because of a lazy arrangement.5. Remove overuse of lengthy double yellow lines round corners to maximise parking and rearrange road junctions. Two lanes need to be ensured at two main Wilmslow traffic junctions. (To waste money on providing railings at a central refuge is ridiculous.) Hawthorne Lane's eccentric road layout still has not been put back to normal after 15 years.6. Monitoring street lighting (lamps lit during the day for over six months down Moor Lane last year).7. Abandon the new day/night streetlight zonal control system: it doesn't work (lamps are seen regularly lit during the day).8. Insist that Council spending is, where possible within Cheshire (no more London-based Town Planning advisers who don't pay local rates)9. Move to have advance warrants ready to remove gypsy travellers from private grounds rather than wait 5 days for the court to initiate a warrant.10. Insist that the peat extractors on Lindow Moss start replanting as they promised to do over 15 years ago to keep the peace. Councillors have buried their heads when their incompetent move in the 1960s allowed Fisons/ICI to start their operation.

We must move forward with better efficiency and no more decision-making undemocratically and behind closed doors. The last local elections have been a wake-up call for Cheshire East Council and they mustn't accept an air of complacency, I feel.

Comments

Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.

Lee Brown

Saturday 2nd January 2016 at 10:02 am

All great comments and very valid. The BIG question is will CEC listen to good advice...... I doubt it!!!!!

David Lewis

Wednesday 6th January 2016 at 3:24 pm

11 Make a thorough assessment of all the brownfield sites that could be made available to avoid the need to build houses in the green belt to meet the overly optimistic housing requirement that the council has set in the local plan.

Neda Metcalfe

Wednesday 6th January 2016 at 10:45 pm

I totally agree with Mr Browns comments but I fear he is right when did CEC ever listen to good advice

Terry Roeves

Thursday 7th January 2016 at 2:28 pm

12. Ensure Tree Preservation orders are in place for all important trees.
13. Increase plantings of Trees.
14. Adult outdoor exercise area.
15. Prof Alan Turing Memorial.
16. Spring bulbs throughout the town.
17. Max. 400 new homes only to be built on brown field sites.
18. Padel tennis courts.
19. Solar panels on all public buildings.